But think about how one deploys to said carriers.
If someone wants to sell 'Final Fantasy' on a mobile, they have to:
- Build the game
- Test it on whatever phones they want it on
- Test in on whatever OS is on the phones (or multiple OSes depending)
- Get permission from carriers/negotiate revenue shares
- Negotiate with retailers like Handango (which have horrible rev-shares)
- Launch product
Whereas with a central marketplace, some of those steps - like negotiating rev share, and getting permission from carriers are taken out of the equation. Thing like that really have an impact on costs, and availability.
Although Symbian is the largest, if you look at their statistics when it comes to ad serves, and internet statistics (metrics that can weigh in on availability of downloading games), Symbian does horrible. So I'd imagine that even though they are #1 in terms of OS penetration, their actual revenue from gaming/apps is nowhere as high. Looking at developer forums paints a similar picture - their devs aren't too happy with what is there, AFAIK.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
